As is well known in the medical technology when surgeons perform minimal invasive surgery as, for example, arthroscopic, laparoscopic or endoscopic surgical procedures, it is often necessary to supply irrigation fluid or to remove fluid from the surgical site. There are a sundry of such instruments that are available and described in the literature. Obviously, for achieving an effective and efficient surgical procedure with a minimal of trauma to the patient, the probe for providing irrigation fluid or for the removal of fluid from the surgical site needs to be small, simple and easy to operate.
An example of a suction/irrigation probe is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,554 granted to Humphreys, Jr. et al on Jul. 11, 2000 entitled SURGICAL SUCTION/IRRIGATION PROBE ASSEMBLY WITH A ROTATABLE ADAPTOR where the adaptor is rotatable 360 degree (°) about an axis and connects to a plurality of tubes that include a supply of irrigation fluid or to a suction pump that removes liquid from the surgical site. A single tube is operatively connected to the adaptor to allow for the connection to anyone of the ports. Hence, a single outlet is configured to supply the irrigation fluid or the suction to a surgical site and a switch in the hand piece allows the surgeon to choose to supply either irrigation fluid or the vacuum.
Other types of irrigation and suction instruments are commonly used and described in the literature for performing these functions for eye surgery and stomach pumping. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 883,583 entitled STOMACH PUMP granted to Stallsmith in Mar. 31, 1908 describes a stomach pump that include induction and eduction tubes mounted side by side that is intended to fit through the esophagus. U.S. Pat. No. 6,340,355 entitled INTRAOCULAR IRRIGATION/ASPIRATION DEVICE granted to Barrett on Jan. 22, 2002 describes apparatus that includes a pair of concentric tubes with the inner tube including a lumen having a bulbous portion on the distal end with a side orifice for flowing irrigation fluid and alternately providing a lumen for the suction function. The outer tube is made from an elastomeric material so that it is flexible, while the inner tube is metallic and rigid.
Other types of irrigation and suction medical instruments are intended to be used for different medical procedures and hence, include various tips that attach to the distal end of the instrument. An example of this type is instrument is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,098 that include various sizes of irrigation tips that are removably connected to a hand-held irrigation/suction hand piece.
While these instruments described in the above paragraph are capable of performing the functions described in this literature, we have found that we can provide the irrigation/suction function in a more simplified apparatus that gives the surgeon a good feel in handling the device with the capability of automatically applying the suction to the surgical site by a simple movement of a thumb or finger and that the direction of the irrigation is adjustable by a simple lifting and rotation of the irrigation tube with the assurance that the direction of the jet stream of irrigation fluid is held constant until changed by the surgeon. The invention is characterized as being uncomplicated and relatively inexpensive to manufacture, easy to operate, having a good feel for the surgeon, being reliable with the capability of applying suction or directional irrigation by a simple hand operated procedure.